See you next year!

Next year, the music world will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's death. His music, but above all his ideas, will take centre stage. For as the first ‘freelance musician’, he had to find a way to relate to a rapidly changing society. For the first time in generations, a musician was not merely a craftsman, but had a story to tell.

Where do my ideas come from? They come unbidden and directly, I could grasp them with my hands, out in nature, in the forest, during walks, in the silence of the night, in the early morning, inspired by feelings which in the poet are translated into words, in me into tones, sounding, surging, storming, until finally they stand before me as notes …

During Beethoven's life, major shifts in power also took place and wars broke out—partly as a result of the French Revolution—that caused a great deal of misery. Were those changes a promise or a danger? Beethoven was in any case, in his own way, a freedom fighter for whom liberty, equality and fraternity were important driving forces. His personal life determined how he composed, navigating between aristocratic power and fighting for financial security, between freedom and responsibility. Our world is also on fire. Wherein lies our shared humanity? And which path does the music point us towards? For the 2027 festival we therefore chose Liberty, equality, fraternity as a theme.